1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pasta and its method of preparation. More particularly, this invention relates to non-cereal grain pasta and its method of preparation, especially to legume pasta and its method of preparation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pastas, such as spaghetti, linguini, ravioli, ziti, tortellini, noodles and the like, form a significant part of the diet of many people. Pastas, also known as alimentary paste foods, are conventionally prepared from wheat-based flour, especially seminola flour obtained from durum wheat. Such food products are high in starch but low in protein and dietary fiber.
With an increasing concern by many people of the need for nutritional diets high in protein, dietary fiber and iron and the attendant efforts to provide more nutritional food products in the marketplace, more nutritious pasta products having, for example, reduced starch content, have been the subject of the prior art.
Nutritionally improved pasta products have been prepared by replacing the wheat, in whole or in part, in the pasta flour or dough with materials derived from various vegetables. U.S. Pat. No. 2,037,042 of Perewe discloses a complete non-wheat pasta product prepared from potato flour, while U.S. Pat. No. 3,162,536 of Kaufmann employs low protein starchy flours including manioc tubers, peanuts, chestnuts and potatoes to prepare alimentary paste foods, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,435 of Hsu discloses a non-wheat containing rice flour pasta. U.S. Pat. No. 1,570,443 of McSorley discloses a pasta prepared from a mixture of soybean and wheat flour, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,190 of Chawan, et al. discloses a pasta flour prepared from grains and legumes wherein, prior to milling, the edible grains and legumes are tempered in the presence of a reducing agent which is said to produce an improvement in color retention of the resulting flour.
Pasta dough, prepared from the pasta flour, must exhibit a particular binding quality to prevent a breaking apart of the pasta during cooking and to provide a cooked pasta product of the proper texture. Wheat employed for conventional pasta inherently provides the required binding to the pasta dough. Heretofore, vegetable pasta products with satisfactory cooking quality and texture could not be prepared by conventional methods when no or substantially no wheat flours were added. U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,215 of Hsu observed that this was apparently due to the difference in the type and quantity of protein in the vegetables employed as compared to semolina, durum flour or regular wheat flour. Semolina and durum wheat contain about 12-14% protein which is mostly gliadin and glutenin and which was believed to contribute to the pasta cooking and texture qualities. Most of the protein in pea, bean and potato is globulin, while corn contains albumin and globulin. Further, vegetables, such as corn and potato, can be classified as being of low protein content, i.e., 7-8%, while bean and peas are considered high protein vegetables, i.e., 20-24%. Since vegetables have a different type and quantity of protein as compared to the wheat flour employed in pasta, vegetable pastas are of poor quality and tend to break apart after cooking. The '215 patent of Hsu states that the cooking and texture problem of vegetable pasta can be significantly flour where they apparently function as binding agents. This patent discloses a vegetable pasta containing a seed or tuberous vegetable in particulate form, sodium or potassium alginate, propylene glycol alginate and starch. Tuberous vegetables are disclosed as including potatoes and sweet potatoes while seed vegetables are disclosed as including corn, peas, lentils and beans, such as mung beans, soy beans, kidney beans and pinto beans. The use of the tuberous or seed vegetables in the '215 patent always requires the addition of alginates. Example 3 illustrates a completely wheat-free pea pasta which requires the use of alginates to provide a satisfactory cooked product.
In view of the increased interest in a more nutritional diet and especially a diet free from chemical additives and preservatives, the need exists to provide pasta products which have improved nutritional properties, especially those high in protein, dietary fiber and iron. Further, since a significant portion of the population is allergic to wheat and, therefore, cannot enjoy the pleasures of eating pasta, a need exists to provide a pasta containing no wheat.
It is an object of this invention to provide pasta products high in nutritional value.
It is another object of this invention to provide non-wheat based pasta products.
It is a further object of this invention to provide pasta products prepared from legumes without any additional source of non-leguminous starch or binding agents.
The achievement of these and other objects will be apparent from the following description of the subject invention.